The term “catfishing” is used for people who use stolen photos to pretend to be someone else online, usually to form relationships with real people on social media.

Fisher navigates the intricate web of false identities, dodgy stories and trail of victims left by Burgess in the new true crime podcast – Chasing Ghosts: The Puppeteer.

he said First Page the Facebook predator story he discovered so long ago was not one he thought would come back to haunt him.

“Maybe the naive part of me thought it would learn a lesson and move on with life and that would be that.

“I read Crystal’s email and thought, ‘Is she really still doing this?’ He seemed to be beating the same drum. It was intriguing, but mainly I felt deflated,” he said.

As part of the latest investigation, Fisher contacted a number of victims, some of whom agreed to appear on the podcast. Others were too traumatized by their experiences.

“Since she got out of prison, she hasn’t targeted teenage boys as much. This was followed by the discovery of another group of victims that she deliberately and relentlessly targeted. There were teenagers and their mothers with whom she formed very long and very meaningful relationships through her fake personas.

“As I ran into these people and talked to them, the trauma was clear to see… When it came to those more familial, less romantic relationships, they stretched for years,” he said.

While re-examining Burgess’s online site, Fisher navigated the damage done to her victims, but also her own mental health struggles.

“It would have been very easy to have listened only to the victims who had such compelling stories, whose pain was so close to the surface that it was impossible to miss.

“But, you can’t do that in journalism. There are all sides of the story out there for investigation, and we have an obligation to address all sides of those stories equally, fairly and empathetically. So, as more was learned about Natalia, a better picture was developed of how she saw the world and how she interacted with it.

“It doesn’t invalidate any of the victims’ stories. What it does is it informs our understanding of how that crime happened in the first place, and I hope it gives our communities and society at large the tools they need to prevent this type of crime from happening again. Or at least find a way to cope better than we did before,” he said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more from David Fisher about the investigation into Natalie Burgess’s murders – and what we can learn from it.

Chasing Ghosts – The Puppeteer is a five-episode true crime investigation. Follow Chasing ghosts on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

First Page is a daily news podcast from New Zealand Heraldavailable for listening every weekday from 5:00. The podcast is hosted by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

You can listen to the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotifyor wherever you get your podcasts.